


Rock Hopping

by Dodo, MountainRose



Series: I anthropomorphize everything [24]
Category: Marvel, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Animal AU, BAMF Pepper Potts, Brooding, Domestic Fluff, Eggs, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Internet Famous, M/M, Nesting, Oblivious Steve Rogers, Parent Steve Rogers, Parent Tony Stark, Pre-Serum Steve Rogers, Swimming, chat dialogue, molting, preening, surrogate egg, zookeeper!jarvis
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-09-28
Updated: 2019-09-28
Packaged: 2020-10-30 03:49:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 12,463
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20808041
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dodo/pseuds/Dodo, https://archiveofourown.org/users/MountainRose/pseuds/MountainRose
Summary: Two round belly boys strike off in their own rock sitting scenarios and become internet sensations.🐧🥚🐧





	Rock Hopping

  
🐧

  
The zoo was nice really nice. Tony, with his bald breast, had been saved by them. Having come from the wild, captivity was a bit of a shock. A good one; no one at the zoo was actively trying to eat him for one and two it wasn’t as cold in the zoo as opposed to the wild. Not that it helped; temperature being relative, it was still cold. He didn’t like the chill in his featherless breast. The zoo provided something like a fake coat for him to wear it was nice and it got him a lot of attention.

He liked that, he was the most popular chinstrap penguin in the park! On special occasions they would have him walk out with his fancy little jacket and take pictures. He enjoyed this very much as the ground outside the exhibit was rarely cold, though once it was blistering hot; nowadays they roll out a bit of red carpet for him to walk on, thankfully.  
  
He’d been the only one of his kind in the exhibit, the only chinstrap in an adelie flock, but that changed eventually. The zoo people got another chin strap from the wild; she was missing a good portion of her right flipper. Natasha was cold and aloof and Tony really liked her, but not in the way the zoo intended. No, Natasha added some spice to his life with Pepper when they huddled up in one of the choice rock alcoves. 

It wasn’t even rock, Tony and Nat could bond of the fake rocks while Pepper, who was born and raised in captivity, knew nothing else. It was like trying to describe the colors of the uv interaction to her, she’d never fully comprehend until she got to go outside. Unfortunately Natasha was the penguin that would parade out with Tony for the photo ops. Nat didn’t like them; it was too warm, and she didn’t like the fluttering of shutters or people at all. Her injury was caused by them, and she remembered. Tony’s was too but he didn’t have much recollection of it. 

  
Natasha and Pepper where quite a couple, Tony was very pleased, but he longed for his own mate. They had staked out a neighboring alcove for Tony, all he needed to do was get his ass in gear and court one of the adelies, following Pepper’s instructions. He got most of the posturing down, it's just lifting his head that far back often caused a sharp twinge in his chest. He fell a lot too, with his head back his center of balance was gone. Pep assured him it was part of his charm and that he’d get a lovely adelie.

There were plenty to pick from that was sure, though most of them had already paired up. So Tony waited by the entry way for Jarvis, the master zookeeper. Jarvis liked him the best. The older man said so and would then ply him with lots of fish. It was at these door feedings that Tony spied a smaller Adelie. One that hadn’t paired off and seemed to fail at getting the fish that Jarvis tossed out.  
  
Tony swaggered over, sure footed flippers out as he started to do the mating display. As he got closer the smaller Adelie responded stiffly as if it couldn’t believe this was happening. There was some chatter and guffaws from the other guys, but Tony didn’t pay them any mind. This one was fine; the eyes a startling deep blue and the almost hesitant way the other peeked at him during the neck tossing was beautiful. It was great right up until Tony flopped over and slid down the ice on his back.  
  
Humiliation. The chatter had become jeers and now he was on his back and struggling to get his bearings. 

  
“Oi, Steve can’t even get a decent girl.”  
“It's the wrong species and gender!”  
“Dorks, both of them.”

  
He felt sorry for this poor Steve adelie, putting up with that kind of garbage. Tony flapped his flippers, trying to right himself. It took a few minutes but eventually he flipped over onto his tummy to see the Adelie he’d been courting slouching down. Oh, that was Steve.  
  
He waddled back up the icy hill. It took some time... He approached Steve again, doing the display properly this time, but Steve just shrank away.  
“You don’t have to,”  
“I want to,”  
Steve picked up his head and looked shly up at Tony as he continued the dance, opting not to throw his head that far back this time. He came to the end and looked expectantly at Steve.  
“I’m a boy.”  
“I’m Tony.”  


Tony tapped his flipper against Steve’s looking pleased. Steve looked highly confused, the deep blue of his eyes hidden by a furrowed brow.  
“What do we do now?”  
“Come back to my nest, I’ll show you my sweet rock collection.”  
Tony was pleased that Steve was following him, his mating display must have been amazing. The idea that Steve was just following because he had nothing better to do hadn’t crossed his mind. Steve was nice, a bit small, but Tony was sure that once he showed Jarvis his mate that Steve would get more fish.  
  
“It's nice.”  
Steve carefully moved around the rock circle, Tony squinted at it, some of the rocks were out of place and he suspected it was Natasha’s doing. Steve paused at the roundish, white rock in the center.  
“What is that?”  
“Oh, that’s my egg!”  
Tony walked over to it and rolled it onto his feet and tucked it under his belly. He did a victory wiggle at Steve, pleased to show off his excellent parenting skills. Steve was clearly gobsmacked he just stared at Tony for a long while.

Luckily, Pepper came over with curious Natasha in tow. They did the perfunctory introductions then Steve begged off under the excuse that he needed to swim. Tony was fine, he needed to warm the egg up. Pepper sighed and shook her head.  
“Oh Tony, I don’t think he’ll come back.”  
Watching Steve speed down to the point, Tony saw him trip and roll sideways down the rest of the way, much to the delight of the human onlookers, and every other penguin in the exhibit.

“Steve will come back! I’m sure of it. He didn’t reject my dance.”  
Pepper shook her head and managed a shrug,  
“I suppose. I'll be at the domes, Nat.”  
Pepper made her way to the little acrylic domes that sometimes had humans trapped inside. Natasha and Tony watched Pepper’s ample backside wiggle away.  
  
“Tony, will you mate with me?”  
“What?”  
“For the eggs, I’ll give you the second one.”  
“Now?”  
Tony looked around, he didn’t want to cheat on Steve, and he definitely didn’t want him to see it happen. Nat shook her head and patted Tony on his head with her flipper.  
“Nyet, when it's time. You need more practice with rock. Also when Steve comes around.”  
“He’ll come around.”  
Nat nodded trilling slight,  
“Yes,”  
Tony felt better with Nat agreeing with him. 

🐧

The next morning as Tony made his way to the fish drop, he spotted Steve waiting in the corner.  
“Steve, you’ll never get any fish over there, come on, I've got the best spot.”  
Steve tried to pretend he didn’t hear Tony. Didn’t matter; Tony ended up pushing Steve to the rubber mat. Tony trod on it easily but Steve didn’t seem to like the mat at all. Tony greeted Jarvis with a flap and chirp noise, accepting fish and then nudging Steve forward.  
“Sir made a new friend, I am honored to make your acquaintance.”  
  
Steve was stuffed full of fish by Jarvis; the zookeeper had noticed his lean state and promptly doubled the fish. Tony flapped excitedly as Jarvis continued talking to them. Something about a new exhibit for the sea lions and yes how dreadfully smelly they were. Tony nodded; sea lions did stink, he didn’t much like them with their red eyes and sharp teeth.

  
After the food, Tony hung around Steve, trying to see what the Adelie did for fun. Seemed to mostly be sitting in the far corner. Tony sighed.  
“If we’re going to sit, can we do it back at my nest? The egg needs us.”  
Steve offered a shrug and followed Tony to the rocky nest. Tony shoved the egg into his pouch looking pleased with himself.  
“You can try with that egg.”  
Steve didn’t respond verbally, he just maneuvered the other rock under his body. Might as well sit on rocks. It was better than waiting in the corner for Rumlow or Hank to come pester him.  
  
The girls joined them later with their own rocks and Tony talks about what he learned from Jarvis. Natasha also complains about the sea lions and then they titter on, gossiping. The topic lands on, Peggy one of the older females in the exhibit. Apparently she’d snubbed Rumlow, which makes Steve feel immensely better; he’d been flipped and slid into fresh poop when he’d danced for her. 

Natasha offered a swim and Tony politely declined, claiming a fear of water which had Steve looking at him oddly again.  
“Steve, your face might stick like that.”  
“How can you be afraid of water?”  
“Ah, last time didn’t go so well for me.” Tony adjusted his head so the bald patch on his breast became apparent and Steve eyed it critically.  
“I’ll swim for you then.”  
  
Steve waddled off after Natasha and Tony carefully tucked his feathers over the scar, feeling at a loss for words and unsure if Steve thought he was ugly now.  
“Tony,”  
Tony looked at Pepper unsure if she was going to start up about Steve leaving him again. He saw her sigh and she waddled right up to him and started grooming his chest. He groomed at her head at first half heartedly till she tugged rather hard on some of his feathers.  
“Okay, I’ll give you a preen too. Pepper, that tickles!”  


Steve did come back, smelling of brine and with a single scrawny fish in his bill. He dropped the fish on the rock and looked at Tony.  
“Hmmm. It's not hungry.”  
Tony looked at the egg that now had a fish on top of it.  
“Steve, I don’t think eggs eat. It has to hatch first.”  
“Then you can have it.”  
“Thank you Steve, I was hankering for some fish.”  


The fish was swallowed up, Tony wiped his beak off on the nearby fake stone outcropping and waddled over to Steve’s side.  
“Here let me,”  
Tony ran his beak through Steve’s side carefully pressing the feathers back into order. He felt Steve stiffen at first but then Steve relaxed, leaning into Tony as he carefully preened his back.  
“Why me?”  
“Huh, why not? You returned my dance.”  
  
Tony wasn’t about to admit that seeing Steve slouching up in the far off corner had reminded Tony of himself, when he was in the wild and part of a flock but still lonely. He hadn’t really even been part of it considering Obie’s betrayal. That one was in the belly of a sea lion. Tony had survived and was now living in captivity and he was much happier for it. Steve seemed to accept the answer and didn’t bring it up again.

🐧 

Steve was sure the crazy chinstrap was leading him on in an elaborate joke. He failed to see the punch line, and it was strange to be teased for trying to feed the fake egg before it hatched. He wasn’t the one trying to hatch a rock. He stayed with Tony some but usually wandered off. Tony always seemed to know where he was though and would guide him back to the rock nest.

It was a cosy place, a bit tucked away from the other nests and dens, the wind chill was considerably less and in the back of the little alcove was a door. Tony mentioned that sometimes Jarvis would open it up for snacks or for his job as an ambassador. Steve listened, still thinking Tony was certifiably crazy, but each morning he got a belly full of fish and it was certainly nice to have a full belly. It was nice to preen in the nest even if he did have to sit the rock some while Tony was off socializing. It was better than the chilly corner, his feet weren’t as cold and the wind wasn’t able to bother him if he huddled in the back.

That and as he spent more time with Tony, the eccentric ways made a bit more sense. Most of them, anyway; there were some that Steve was still skeptical about. The rock for one, the fear of water, that odd chest scar, being an ambassador. He’d come to realize that Jarvis very much favored Tony, just by the excess bulk of fish he was getting.  
  
He did enjoy trying to out-swim Natasha, which was so far seemingly impossible. He was getting better though, and his wheezy breaths diminished. He was sure it had to do with spending less time in the chilly corner. He was still awkward though, and climbing up to the den from the water was another task altogether. Natasha mentioned that Tony hadn’t picked out the Dens based on where the water was. Steve could see that, and resented it as he hopped up using his beak to help scale the rocky incline. 

As he filled out with muscle, he practiced grace. mostly from copying Tony; there was a certain sway of hips Tony did and Steve had been trying his best to emulate it. He was being noticed by the other female Adelies, and by some of the others that had heckled him. Rumlow still heckled him but now it was mostly about how his partner was a crazy loon and other disparaging remarks. Hank called Tony Steve’s ‘meal ticket’ and they made allusions to Steve laying down and taking it for fish. That confused Steve; he rarely layed down at all and Tony did most of laying about.

  
Peggy seemed interested in him, along with Maria and Sharon. He wasn’t sure how it had happened. He was walking with a pretty glitter rock in his beak for Tony; since the other really liked rocks, Steve figured this one would be a nice addition. But before he scaled the incline, he was surrounded by the three squabbling Adelie ladies, and had to lift his head to protect his eyes and rock. They pecked at each other as they tried to keep Steve for themselves.  
  
“I saw him first, I get first rights to lay with him!”  
Steve winced when Peggy pecked Maria hard on her head.  
“Nonsense, the strongest shall lay with him.”  
Steve managed to walk away as they fought over him; it felt really bizzare to have three very pretty ladies fight over him. Sharon was being a bit more pragmatic, claiming the second lay. Steve stopped mid swagger when he noticed Natasha watching him from the side bank.  
  
“Chinstraps mate for life, do you know?”  
Steve lowered his head, he didn’t know that.  
“Tony will like that rock, he is easy to please.”  
There was a kerfuffle behind Steve, Maria waddled into the conversation boldy followed by Sharon.  
“Back off strap, I claim second lay.”  


Natasha leveled a look like she wasn’t remotely impressed with Maria, then ignored her entirely.  
“Steve will you be up for a swim later?”  
Steve nodded still holding the rock, not willing to relinquish it. He had got it for Tony, and none of these penguins ever spared him a glance when he was thin and sickly. He listened to the squabbling some more; for Sharon and Maria, it sounded like they only wanted him to produce an egg. He wasn’t actually going to be a chosen mate. That was a bummer; he’d been feeling real good about having three dames fight over him but now the feeling soured.

Steve left the dames and made his way to the alcove and there he saw Jarvis in the mini door, feeding Tony snacks. He also installed a camera, Tony of course fussed with it some until Jarvis assusaged him with more squid bits. Steve carefully tucked the rock away and waddled over. Filling the gap with his body and pushing just so into Tony who pushed back, they play fought over the squid each time Tony tried to snatch some out of Steve’s beak Steve would stuff it into Tony’s crop. Tony learned quickly not to steal unless he wanted what he was stealing to be stuffed into his face.

Jarvis was merely beaming and the little door shut. Tony looked really pleased.  
“See I told you; snacks!”  
“I guess you were right. Oh hey, I got you something.”  
Steve retrieved his rock and presented to Tony, Steve watched the other’s eyes widen. Tony tilted his head as he leaned in closer to see the rock, and they ended up standing breast to breast.  
“It's beautiful! Thank you so much!”  
Steve released the sparkly stone into Tony’s beak and Tony placed it on the little ledge in the alcove.

  
“I’ll see it every time I wake up and think of you.”  
Steve felt something very warm rush around his body, he flapped his flippers nervously.  
“Do you want to preen?”  
Tony nodded vigorously and they huddled up to preen each other, that helped Steve a bit. Though these new feelings were a bit confusing, even if Tony was different, it wasn’t a bad different and he’d always been nice to Steve. There was a heave in Tony’s breaths and Steve nudged him,  
“Hey, you okay?”  
“It's nothing,”  
Tony’s voice warboled and cracked at the end. Steve moved from preening Tony’s flipper, looking over his shoulder at Tony.  
  
“You sure?”  
“No one has ever given me a rock before, I’m just so moved, okay. It's a big thing for chin straps.”  
“Oh, I guess I need to get you more rocks.”  
Tony stilled his breathing, tilting his head to look up, eyes misty and bright.  
“You’d do that for me?”  
Steve was a bit confused but pushed on. If giving Tony rocks made Tony happy of course he’d do it.  
“Of course I would.”

  
🐧  


Steve would get the most rocks for Tony so they could make the biggest rock nest possible. Maybe have Tony sit them all and see if one hatches. Though he felt if Tony had an actual egg it would work out better. There was no way those rocks would hatch, no matter how much they sat on them and tossed fish at them. Maybe he could find a female that wouldn’t mind surrendering an egg.

Actually, Steve thought he’d might have a chance with Pepper so he waited until Tony was off with Natasha, sliding the slopes and rock scouting. The rocks Steve had brought Tony were separated from the nest rocks because they were special. By far Tony’s favorite was the sparkle rock, Steve had caught Tony looking at it wistfully. He picked up one of the rocks that Tony had decided they didn’t need anymore and headed over to the other den. Pepper was sorting their rocks when Steve dropped his offering, and she looked up.  
  
“What is it Steve?”  
Steve got the distinct impression that Pepper really didn’t like him all that much and he wasn’t sure why.  
“Uhh, a rock Tony says we don’t need anymore?”  
Pepper poked the rock into one of their piles and then looked at Steve, flippers tense.  
“Uhh well Tony and I are guys, and he really wants an egg...I was thinking maybe we could lay and ugh the first egg for Tony?”

  
Pepper’s eyes thinned into small slits, Steve took a step back unaware of his own movement as Pepper lunged forward with her beak open. There was a sharp pain of feathers being plucked. Pepper hissed at Steve.  
“Don’t you dare! Don’t you dare break Tony’s heart!”  
“The rocks aren’t going to hatch! When hatching season comes and everyone has chicks, we’ll just have rocks! What about then!”  
“He’s not an idiot Steve,”  
“What if I get his consent to this?”  
Pepper paused in her plucking, Steve looked and felt a bit tattered by then.  
“That's the issue, this is a partner decision, and you’ve made the call. We will not speak of this again until you have told Tony everything. Including you flirting with the other Adelie penguins.”

  
Steve exploded crying out to defend himself.  
“I wasn’t flirting with them.”  
“Oh well why didn’t you tell them you were taken?”  
“I didn’t want to drop the shiny stone.”  
Steve balked as Pepper’s eyes became slits again, but her whole demeanor shifted.  
“The shiny rock that Tony talks about nearly nonstop if you let him? Your proposal stone? Of course.”  
Pepper carefully tucked some of her feathers to lay flat on her breast. She moved back into her alcove still facing Steve.  
“Topic closed Steve, I don’t want to see you over here unless you have Tony in tow.”  
“Alright.”  
Steve carefully picked his way back to the place he’d been tentatively calling home.

🐧

Tony was super pleased Steve was bringing him a neat rock every other day now. They almost had more than Natasha and of course he showed them off. Then jealously guarded them from Nat because she’d jibed about taking a few. She couldn’t take the ones Steve brought back, which were all sorts. Even rocks Tony would have passed by, Steve’s excuse was that he thought them swell. Thankfully Tony was in charge of the nest since Steve had no idea where to put the rocks.

Steve had really bulked out with the fish and extra snacks, he was very round and perfectly good to snuggle during the night. They talked about favorite colors, Steve liked the blue of the ocean, he found it calming. Tony said ‘red like the food bucket’ which meant Jarvis. Tony talked a lot about the shiny stone, he adored it. He’d heard the story from Nat that Steve had been carrying the stone and three Adelie ladies had started a fight around Steve for a chance to lay with him and he just kept on waddling with the rock. It warmed Tony’s breast to hear that.

Steve eventually admitted he liked to rest his head in the hollow of Tony’s chest with his ear against his bald spot so he could listen to Tony’s heart. Steve had actually blushed while admitting to that. Tony had of course flopped over and offer his spot to Steve. Steve nuzzled into the patch, body huddled close.

Steve was also taking care of the egg more, though he was still trying to feed the rock. Tony found it adorable that Steve could occasionally tap the rock with his beak and ask for it to hatch soon. Tony was a bit worried that Steve thought the rock was an actual egg, until one day Tony came back to the alcove to see Steve with several of his feathers plucked out with the rock in his pouch. There were little drops of blood on Steve’s breast and it sent Tony into a tizzy.

He basically tapped up a storm on the door in the back of their den till Jarvis opened it and Tony chirped anxiously while pointing out all the blood spots with his beak. Jarvis carefully removed Steve and within a few minutes a very confused Steve was returned with his little wounds covered in a thick paste. The blood was cleaned up and Tony relaxed.

Tony didn’t recall if there were any snacks he’d been to busy reaffirming that Steve was alive. Seeing the blood had been unwelcome Tony slumped into Steve as he regained his breath. He slowed his breath and sort of dozed off while resting up against Steve, while Steve preened feathers on Tony’s head.

🐧

Steve was pretty happy this was his home and he enjoyed sleeping with Tony out of the cold, all snuggled up against the warm wall with Tony. The rock care was so ingrained he’d started to think of it as an egg. Tony had spent the afternoon with Natasha, apparently to fight over who’s nest was best. Steve had spent that time flatting out the snow drift that was obscuring their view of the water and visitors.  
  
He looked back; from the cave it was better, not the best but he could wait for Tony and then they could play while trampling the crisp snow and that seemed more appealing. So he scooped up the rock and sat in the elaborate rock nest Tony had built.  
  
Tony came over looking out of sorts but very pleased.  
“I’ve secured us some eggs.”  
Tony placed a rock down and at this point Steve decided that was what Tony was talking about. More rocks it was fine Steve offered his rock egg to Tony, who accepted it.  
“The view is nice.”  
Tony waddled out to inspect the drift with the egg. Steve followed slower avoiding the newest rock Tony had brought.  
“I thought we could play in the drift a bit later.”  
“Really? I’d like that. You have the best ideas Steve.”  
  
Steve ducked his head rolling his shoulders in the classic ‘awe shucks’ movement. Tony rubbed his beak on Steve’s they battled it out and Tony let Steve win. Mostly because he liked watching Steve’s chest swell in triumph.  
“Tony, stop letting me win, come on.”  
“But you get all cute when you win!”  
“I do not!”  
Steve huffed indignantly at Tony and they play fought some more.  


“Awe look at the two fag birds.”  
Steve jerked up looking for Rumlow having heard him jeer. He saw Hank making his way towards their home, and he puffed up giving chase. He pecked Hank hard in the lower leg, a move he’d been learning from Natasha on how to fight. A plucking wouldn’t have deterred Hank as he already looked pretty plucked but a sore leg would be harder to forget.  
  
Hank fell over with a squeak, Steve turned back to Tony swelling with pride that Hank was no longer making a bit for their rock nest. His pride was short lived as he noticed Brock’s hulking form looming over Tony who was on his back, the rock was kicked. Steve launched himself at Brock as Rumlow took hold of Tony’s flipper and tossed him over the snow bank. Laughing the whole time about pussy penguins.  
  
Steve collided with Rumlow knocking them both off the escarpment, Steve trying his best to alter his path to go after Tony who seemed to be rolling down the steep cliffs with increased speed. Steve ignored Brock’s flailing as he squeezed his flippers in tightly and sped after Tony who didn’t look to be in control or even alive at this point. The ragdoll body of the whiter chinstrap became airborne born a short time and then plunged into the water below.  
  
Steve dove after him. Tony was sinking, fast. He swam down, other penguins darting around them but giving Tony's lifeless form a wide berth as Steve followed the small trail of bubbles. Unaware of the humans shouting and banging on the other side of the glass as he grabbed a mouthful of Tony’s scruff in his beak and pulled him up to the surface.

It was hard work to get up to the surface, Steve could feel his heart beat wildly as he struggled to keep Tony’s head above the water. He had no idea how to get Tony back on the ice. He surveyed the penguins watching looking for Natasha or Pepper but he didn’t see them.  
  
Suddenly the water Steve was treading was no more, he was held aloft in a net with Tony. Jarvis was at the other end and Steve felt himself fade with relief. Jarvis would take care of Tony, they were safe now. The temperature warmed up considerably, and Steve was placed in a soft white box as Jarvis tended to Tony. He propped his head up on the edge and trilled encouragement to Tony.

Tony was very out of it from what he could see, his body was soggy as Jarvis rubbed a towel over the limp chinstrap. There was a slow rise of the breast signifying Tony was alive, Steve peeped more trying to encourage Tony to wake up.  
“Please Tony, wake up,”  
Steve called out to Tony’s body as he peeped worriedly for his mate to stirr, this sort of still sleep was unnatural for Tony, the chinstrap was an active sleeper.  
“Now now, hush you both need some sleep,” Jarvis chided as he placed Tony next to Steve in the soft warm bin. “Quick trip to the vet’s office and you’ll be right as rain in no time.” 

Steve wiggled up against Tony tucking his head into the bald spot in the chest. The sound of him breathing was enough to reassure Steve that Tony was at least alive, if not well yet.

  
🐧

Jarvis was able to bring the two sleeping penguins back within half an hour, radiography done, and exams completed. His dear little Sir was going to be just fine; the nice, thick layer of blubber Jarvis had been helping him put on had saved him from the worst. Steve, who had been quite distressed, had also ended up sedated and examined, and thus would be able to skip his annual health check this year. 

He borrowed Clint, the aviary intern, on his way back.  


“They’re both guys, how can they be bonded? _ And _ Adelies don’t bond,” Clint said, peering into the box of sleeping penguins.  
“Clint,” Jarvis chided, shooing him away from the finally-peaceful box. “The amount of female pairs in my exhibit alone, and you complain about the one male pair we have? Why not the interspecies females; Pepper the Adelie and Natasha the Chinstrap?”

He wheeled the transport box to its safe cubby by the monitoring station and let Clint stew on this. 

  
“They lay fertile eggs, right? Having chicks probably maintains the bond. Two males can’t do anything but...feed rocks fish,” Clint commented. Jarvis pointed him to a station and started the incident footage as Clint looked over the data from the cameras Jarvis had installed in several of the breeding nests. Sure enough a good amount of the pairs where lesbians. Surprisingly, of the live-feeds they streamed, the hits for the ‘Stony’ channel eclipsed all the others.

  
“Tony and Steve have been spending months taking care of that rock,” Jarvis told him, pointing to an open spreadsheet. “They’ve been incubating and feeding it, with more regularity then some of the straight couples. I’ll be cross fostering them an egg at some point.”

“But why did they feed a rock?” Clint asked, baffled; the chicks usually triggered that behavior with their peeping.  
“Steve is under the impression the rock should have hatched by now,” Jarvis said with simple confidence. Clint didn’t have that much trust in a pair of flightless ducks, but J was the head keeper; he wasn’t going to argue.

  
Clint skimmed through the past comments on the livestream channel; lots of heart-eyes. A lot of comments on how Steve finds the best rocks.

[penguinwatcher566]: omg he brought it a fish again will tony eat it :hearteyes: 

[hotgurl2349]: Tony is a benevolent overlord and accepts all offerings with grace.

The comment metadata spiked on days where Steve brought fish back, or the time Steve came back thoroughly plucked, and Jarvis had tagged the various spikes with the reasons, and linked edited footage to the tags so they could study the behavior. Clint chuckled at the sad looking image of Steve’s part-plucked chest then leaned over to look at Steve in the white bin, squinting up at him with a bleary, half-awake glare. There was no sign of the damage, now.

  
[not spiderman]: I really like how Tony messes with the rock pile

[hotgurl2349]: its a nest!

  
“Alright, I can’t deny that they’re bonded,” Clint admitted, “and you know ‘em best. I’m just glad I work with birds that can fly. These guys are odd.”

“You do know Mavis and Travis are both males?” 

Clint froze, “Wait what? Our parrots are gay?”

Jarvis nodded absently. “Did Coulson not inform you? It’s one of his favorite facts.” 

Well that nixed the breeding writeup, Clint moaned to himself. “I was going to do a case study on them, damn.” He’d never noticed dark edges on Mavis’ tail feathers, but now he was going to go looking. Dog-darn it, he felt dumb; no wonder Jarvis never thought his breeding proposals were a good idea.  
  
“So is the chinstrap going to live? One of your viewers gif’ed the footage. Quite a tumble.”

“Sir, will be fine, the vet was quite happy with his blubber protection. We’re rather fortunate.” 

Clint rolled the footage back and forth over the argument before hand, scribbling observations in the notebook Jarvis had been using. “That one bird with the red band... Looks pretty deliberate. You said he’s been an issue?”

“Indeed; that one smashed his own egg and has been bullying others since his introduction, I've offered it up in transfer. A big male like him will be transferred in no time, particularly since I’ve opened it to non-breeding facilities. The breeding program requires actual breeding to happen and a bird like that doesn’t deserve any further eggs.”

Clint finished making his behaviour notes on the incident, and handed them over to Jarvis for cross referencing. Onscreen, the livestream was currently blank, since none of the cameras were assigned to Tony or Steve. The chat section was mostly all-caps and scared emojis, so Clint opened the moderator account and got to typing out the standard reassurances. 

“J, this read okay? Just to tide them over until you’re done with the page update.” 

The head keeper rolled his chair over and read the message, while Clint flipped a pencil over his knuckles in anxiety.

“Yes, send it off. Please stay in the chat for a few minutes? I’ll give you the link once it’s ready.” 

  
Jarvis tapped away on the computer, filling out an incident report and formulating the page update in his mind at the same time. He was glad the aggressor bird would be gone soon, Tony was dear to him, and had been with him since he had rescued him on a research trip in his youth. This incident was the last straw and he would be upping his campaigning to make life better for the little Sir; Tony the chinstrap was a beloved mascot and the people who had witnessed the attack had been very upset. There had been several kids in hysterics when he’d fished the penguins out of the water, and he could only hope that management would finally agree to improve the habitat and facilities. Steve’s mold allergy had not been enough to sway them, but perhaps the public voice would. 

  
With the incident report completed and sent to management, he started on the page update. ‘The importance of stopping bullying’ he labeled the announcement, and linked several recordings of what had happened. He reassured the public that Rumlow and Tony would not be allowed free contact again, and apologised that Tony would be off exhibit while he recovered. 

That done, and sent to Clint, he corresponded with Sam about rehoming the bully penguin. Sam immediately offered to take the larger male if they got at least two female chicks from the previous season as well. That was amenable; Sam’s zoo had proper separation facilities, and Rumlow wouldn’t be able to bully anyone. Jarvis accepted the terms of the agreement and hashed out the shipping details. 

By this point, he had to release Clint back to his supervisor, and sat down with the livestream to moderate the intense stream of concern in chat. With one eye on the recovery box, and one eye on the livestream, he missed the moment Tony woke up, but was intensely relieved to hear his quiet peeping. 

He pulled a box of squid out of the enrichment fridge, and settled next to the box to say hello. Tony, as usual after receiving gas and air, shot straight to his feet and instantly had visible regrets as he fell back over onto Steve. The larger Adelie didn’t complain, and started preening Tony’s head with anxious urgency. 

“Oh dear, Steve... He’s quite alright, I assure you. Here, sir. It’s squid. There’s sprats as well, if you’re good.” 

The penguins stood up, successfully this time, and Jarvis dropped little scraps of food in their patient beaks.

“There you go... Slowly does it. I’m sure your nap has your stomachs quite topsy turvy.” 

The squid and it’s high water content was a must after sedation, and on observation of Tony’s slight wobble, he decided to hold the oily fish for later. With them settled upright and content to lean against each other in their transport box, Jarvis pulled out a spare camera from the streaming equipment.

  
“Time for a little cameo sir, your fans are worried.”

  
Jarvis clamped the camera on the edge of the bin. Tony peeped softly and clacked his beak over it once, before he decided it was not interesting enough to deserve his attention, and tucked his head under Steve’s flipper. 

Before hitting ‘stream, Jarvis took a moment to look, and double check that he really wanted the public to see his dear sir and Steve in their current state. Parts of Tony’s white body were tinged pinkish blue from the abrasions of his fall, cuts that had been bleeding freely and then patched with blue ointment at the vet's office. Jarvis carefully dabbed some fresh ointment on the wounds on his chest, since it had been rubbed away by Steve’s well-meaning preening. Thankfully, the lacerations were minor, and shallow. That layer of blubber really had come through.

Tony trembled bravely at the attention, keeping still despite what Jarvis knew to be quite the sting. Steve opened his mouth threateningly, trying to warn him that Tony was tired and he would bite to keep him from disturbing Tony further. That, Jarvis decided, was a fair comment; he chuckled and then dabbed some ointment on Steve’s head.

  
“Very brave aren’t you, perfect little husband. Keep sir safe for me, will you?”  


He gave them both a squid each, and turned the camera on. 

🐧

Tony was kept for observation for about a week.

Steve was at first placed in the exhibit, but when he refused to eat and stared at the door in the alcove, Jarvis relented and placed him with Tony in the recovery area. Unsurprisingly, Tony’s mood improved with having Steve there and they did the ‘adorable cuddle pile’ behavior at night; Jarvis’ arguments to management had been justified, and he spent rather longer than perhaps he should in the recovery area, indulging in enrichment training with the two ambassadors and getting them out of the recovery bin for carefully supervised walks amongst the office chairs. 

The term ‘adorable cuddle pile’ had been coined by a live feed user and it had been widely accepted on twitter. It was Tony’s habit really, his preference for lying down to sleep as opposed to upright sleeping. Steve would slowly topple over, as if he was trying to lean on a partner who was in fact an inelegant sprawl in a pile of rocks. In the towel covered bin they pretty much did the same except there was more wiggling to be on top, and a significant chance of towel-related tangling.  
  
Steve would usually win, and end up on top to the delight of the people watching live. 

Steve was quite defensive of his mate, and would try and bite some of the vet technicians that were just trying to do their job, to defend Tony from them. He only really accepted help from Jarvis; everyone else had to do a distract and check tactic to get around Steve.

  
After the recovery week they were placed in a new section of the exhibit, where there were no other penguins around. Steve was confused by this at first, until he checked out the water part. It was much shallower, with an easy to get out section dipping into the water. 

He he knew what Jarvis wanted, then.

It took Steve two days to get Tony down to the water, and another whole day to get Tony’s feet wet. Steve desperately wanted Tony to swim so he didn’t have to worry about not being able to help, the water here was shallow enough that Steve could stand above the surface, he couldn’t go back and relive that moment where his mate drifted lifelessly down into the water.

Tony hadn’t been awake for that, Steve understood that, but this was just in case. Based on the few remarks about it, Tony had been stubborn about it from the get go. Even as far as not cuddling up at night, pouting in a corner. Even the rock Steve had brought Tony had been snubbed.

In frustration, Steve broke down poking Tony awake, while crowding him against the wall so he couldn’t escape as Tony was prone to do.  
“Tony please, I can’t save you from the water. You don’t have to ever swim with me after this, I just want to make sure that you can swim. In case something like that happens again.”  


Tony grumbled, trying to look away from Steve’s soft watery eyes.  
“I don’t have to swim in the big tank ever? Then fine, tomorrow.”  
Steve poked at Tony some more, understanding that Tony wouldn’t be as agreeable tomorrow and now was best, before the other could worry over it and make it worse with anticipation.  
“Night swim Tony, come on.”  
  
With a few well placed prods Tony was up and sliding down with Steve to the water’s edge. Tony paced along the edge and decided that it was too cold for a swim, his feet were too cold. Steve splashed him in aggravation and Tony, ever competitive, splashed back. They continued this for some time, Tony seemed to be enjoying the splash fighting, but he must have forgotten where the edge dipped off and he fell over into the deeper water. Steve started, heart leaping up into his chest as he hurried over to the edge.

Only to see Tony zooming around in the water like a speed demon, hopping out on the far side and shaking his body. Tony looked pleased but his smile faltered when he was Steve.  
“Oh poo it was cold Steve! I had to get out. I’m fine!”  
“What?”  
Steve craned his head forward unable to hear Tony as he was on the other side of the exhibit.  
“For the love ugh.”  
Amazingly to Steve’s surprise Tony hopped back into the water and zoomed towards him, jumping out and crashing directly into Steve and laughing as they tumbled into the shallow water. Sliding all the way back.  
  
The stay in the new enclosure after that was far better than Steve could have imagined. They occasionally swam together, Steve understood that Tony really didn’t like the deep chill the water would impart, but it was fine if they spent afterwards preening and cuddling. Steve really liked swimming with Tony, who was much faster. The chinstrap could do tighter turns, and swim laps if he wanted to. Tony didn’t have as much stamina, but that was fine. 

Steve would be happy having one swim a day and then preening Tony as he listens to the other’s ideas about nest improvements. Or whatever gossip Tony heard that was worth sharing. Though apparently when you were just in an exhibit with your mate there wasn’t much to gossip about.

Luckily at the end of the second week Jarvis rescued them though he held two tiny articles of clothes one a nice burgundy and the other a deep blue. Tony perked up chirping in delight and followed Jarvis out of the enclosure.  
“Come on Steve, time to be an ambassador with me.”

Steve followed a bit reluctantly he didn’t much care for the rubber mats that were everywhere outside the exhibit.  
  
In another room Jarvis was using some sort of wire instrument to groom Tony and Steve took offense and pushed it away so he could groom Tony the way they both liked it. Jarvis merely chuckled and relented, the wire grooming tool was then used on Steve and he stopped mid preen. Tony was laughing at him too as his eyes drooped the brush felt so good. There were two brushes and they both kinda stood and let Jarvis brush them down.  
  
“Alright time for the clothes, Sir you’ll walk down the carpet and you fans have amassed a huge rock collection for you to pick from. There you go Sir very dashing.”  
Tony puffed up his chest in the burgundy jacket vest combo waddling up to the mirror to inspect himself. 

It was Steve’s turn and he didn’t much like how Jarvis was easily avoiding his nips while dressing him in the blue garment. Steve lost in the end he was now dressed up and standing in front of the mirror vastly confused, his breast was now blue, he pecked at it. Till Tony intercepted him and straightened one of the ruffled lapels.  
  
“Stop Steve, you look really good in blue it matches your eyes.”  
Steve paused fiditing as he eyed up Tony.  
“I like you naked better.”  
Tony blushed and ducked his head, though his abashed words were easily heard.  
“You are quite handsome without the vest too.”  
Steve squinted, the jacket did hide the chest scar, he knew it made Tony uncomfortable, he did look good in the red it made the brown eyes pop more.  
“It looks good on you, but I still stand by my earlier statement.”

  
Tony was still blushing when Jarvis came back to guide them out onto the red carpet. Rubber mats were a problem the soft bright red of the carpet was another issue altogether for Steve the ground should never be furry he really didn’t like it. So he made haste over it to hopefully get off on something more natural.

Though he noticed in his haste to get away from the soft fuzzy red carpet he’d left Tony behind him, Steve turned and walked back to Tony taking up the spot at Tony’s right. Holding out his flipper so they touched, they did a quick beak touch and then continued down the red carpet. Steve hadn’t noticed during his jog down that there had been loads of cameras trained on him. Now with Tony he was aware of the amount of shutter clicks going off.  
  
“Is it always like this?”  
“Yeah, but today we get to pick a rock, see them at the end of the red?”  
Steve squinted against the bright sunshine and sure enough there was a massive pile of rocks at the end of the carpet. That was something Steve could do, though he kept his flipper touching Tony’s as they waddled down the carpet together. 

At the end, they stood in front of the rocks and the media seemed to creep in. The noise of the cameras increased as Tony looked over the rocks. Some of them were much prettier than any of the rocks Steve had picked out and he was starting to feel a bit insecure about this. Steve was too busy feeling sad for himself to notice that Tony was now in the pile of rocks rooting around, until a rock rolled onto his flipper and he nudged it away. Jarvis was close bye and that helped keep Steve calmer than he thought it would. Jarvis was predictable, and would make sure they always had food.  
  
What if Steve wasn’t good enough for Tony? All the things Tony had told him about and he hadn’t believed were true. Tony _ was _ an ambassador, and right now he was doing something important. Steve had just found a nifty sparkly rock and thought maybe Tony would like it. Here Tony had his pick out of all the rocks, Steve didn’t even know rocks could be in those colors!  
  
“Hey, Steve! I got you something.”  
Tony lifted up a bluish rock with red flecks in it. He moved gracefully over the rest of the rocks, ignoring the deep red ones, some as red as Jarvis’ fish bucket. Tony presented the rock to Steve, and Steve dutifully took and and tucked into his pouch like it was an egg.

  
He fussed with it, anxious and distracting himself from the clacking of cameras. “Tony, this is... You are so important, all these people! I’m not good enough for you.”  
  
“Hey, you’re the bestest for me, you zipped after me when I fell. You don’t make fun of the rock sitting.”  
Steve tilted his head; he was sitting on a rock now, so it would be hypocritical, really.  
“If this one hatches will it be a penguin?”  
Tony paused beak open as he stepped in closer.  
“Steve, honey; it's a rock.”  
“We’ve been sitting rocks for months Tony, I just assumed you thought they were eggs…”  
“I mean well yes I was pretending they were eggs, as practice for the real thing.”  
“I...see. You are the best rock sitter I know.”  
  
Steve carefully retrieved the stone in his pouch and held it up, crossing his beak with Tony’s. The paparazzi took so many pictures of them, then, that the sky seemed pale compared to the mad flashes. Jarvis swooped in and started talking about the new exhibit that would expand the penguin place, so Steve hustled Tony behind his legs while they blinked away the flashes. 

The rest of the rocks would be scattered into the exhibit for all penguins to enjoy. A section of the old exhibit would be refurbished due to mold and in dire need of an update; anyone who wanted to donate money could get themselves a rock in the exhibit. 

Other updates include treats on sinking rings, the rock partition between the old and new area actually had slides built into it, along with steps, and clever treat pockets that could be filled by hand on the inside of the hollow structure. There were a few questions, something about breeding but Steve was too busy exchanging the rock back and forth withTony. It was some sort of a game to Tony to ask for the rock and then pass it back, Steve finally tucked into his egg pouch in an attempt to keep Tony from asking for it.

Jarvis was promising the media that the exhibit would have some interactions with the public but it would be limited for certain times right now. He briefly talked about Rumlow being moved to another facility, though Tony had moved to sit on Jarvis’ feet like he was a child. Tugging on the pants and chirping, Jarvis was thoroughly distracted and the media loved it. Tony managed to end the show with this and Steve held the rock up high above Tony’s head and waddled back towards their home, with Tony in pursuit.  
  


🐧

The press release was so successful that a short while after Tony was gifted with a stunning red and golden yellow jumper from Jarvis. It was a hit, both on the live feed camera in the new exhibit, and in the gift store. Penguin plush jumpers and suits were sold at a pretty penny; the price of the toy plus a donation to the Penguin Fund. 

Whenever Tony spotted a plush him in his favorite jumper he’d do a happy wiggle and jump dance, crowing that he was the cuddliest of all penguins and the best dressed. Steve agreed about the snuggly part, fashion was debatable. Tony spent a lot of time in that jumper, and often used it as an excuse not to go swimming. Steve really liked swimming with Tony, so he wasn't sure if it was to slight him or that Tony was just colder than he let on.

Jarvis would remove it before night time, much to Tony’s displeasure. He’d be pecking at the back door, chirping, before food time and would beg for the jumper back by raising his flippers and ducking his head. Steve was thankful that Jarvis didn’t always hand over the jumper; on those days Tony would join him in the water or at the slides. 

When he wore it, Tony would waddle back and forth on his ‘cat walk’, Natasha’s term. Tony would show off his lovely jumper to the adoring crowds of humans and jump excitedly when someone waved a copy of himself through the window. He wouldn’t do anything that could mess it up, though with enough weedling he did manage to go sliding with it. It did prevent snow from touching Tony’s bare patch which only emboldened Tony in his activities while he was wearing it.

This delighted Steve, who wanted nothing more than to spend time with Tony, even if they fought over the best way to arrange the rock nest. Even if Steve spent more time in the water. The new exhibit had more space, more challenges, and activities in the water. He was even beating Natasha occasionally at the swimming challenges.  
  
Tony would tidy their alcove, pick up their rocks and turn them and place Steve’s glittery rock and Tony’s colorful rock back on the ledge. Steve caught Tony looking at the rocks with a dreamy face often. They still sat rocks, though Steve had become lax in it while Tony took over almost obsessively.  
  
“Hey, if you know it's a rock why do you sit it?”  
Tony paused in his grooming around the amazing jumper, it was nice and cosy. He looked up at Steve while he moved his legs and feet to adjust his rock.  
“Practice for when Nat drops the second egg.”  
Steve’s head reared up and his flippers flailed.  
“Wait! What?”  
  
Tony ducked his head a bit sheepishly,  
“I did tell you earlier, but if you thought, I thought rocks were eggs I guess I could see how my statement with a rock that I’d found could be misleading? Natasha and I arranged this before you were in the picture, I should have let you know.”  
Tony wilted a bit, feeling bad he’d not been direct about it. Steve let his flippers fall to the sides, it made sense. He thought about the plucking and Pepper, had she known? He couldn’t imagine Nat hiding this.  
“So, we’re going to have the second egg?”  
  
Tony nodded and readjusted the rock under him. Steve seemed to be catching on, and didn’t see too angry so that was looking up. The adelie bumped Tony on the way out of the alcove.  
“So I’m glad you told me, uhh I’d like to swim more with you if that would help you feel less guilty? And maybe after the babies fledge we can talk to the girls about next year?”  
Steve ran his beak a long Tony’s clacking it gently.

Tony perked up already thinking of ways to facilitate swimming and sitting, they’d have to work with Pepper and Natsha on the sitting and activity time. At least Steve had enough stamina now for several swims, so he could do the morning with Nat, while he and Pep sat. Then Steve could sit while he fixed his errant feathers. While the girls did their things, and he could swim later in the day.

🐧

Jarvis was there to put on the jumper and feed his favorite two penguins some squid when Natasha waddled in, and Pepper hovered outside of the alcove with an egg on her feet. Tony turned from the jumper and ducked his whole body low towards Nat. Sure enough there was an egg in her pouch, clean and new. She transferred it to Tony seamlessly, then pulled a squid right out of Jarvis’ stilled hands and waddled back to Pepper to feed her a share.  
  
Steve checked out the egg and huddled next to Tony, while Jarvis seemed to overcome his shock and resume his actions. He fed them several squid while humming, then told them;  
“Perhaps later for your jumper sir.”  
Tony merely snuggled down over the egg, pleased that he was actually doing it for real, and heart in his throat at the slight, fragile warmth of the egg. The rock had been very good practice, and he knew he could keep the egg on his feet no matter what, but it felt very different. 

🐧

The nest, the rock nest, was inadequate. Tony, sitting on the egg with his jumper tucked over it, tried his best to direct Steve on how to build it appropriately, since Steve didn’t have the right instincts. But either Tony’s words were doing a bad job of conveying what he meant or Steve was willfully miss-interpreting them. Tony squinted; he wasn’t sure which, as Steve liked doing the latter to get him huffy. But that was usually with a lot of flirting and Steve seemed frustrated. Normally Steve was the former; willing and baffled...  
“Steve!” Tony called, bobbing his head. Steve waddled over obediently, they clacked beaks, and the tension in Steve’s head feathers smoothed back out.  
“Here Tony, let me sit the egg while you fix the nest.”

Tony fluffed up, alarmed and excited and confused all at once. He didn’t want to give up the egg he’d been waiting for so soon! But it was exciting that Steve really actually wanted to sit it with him.  
  
Steve took the flustered response as a yes and carefully nudged the egg off of Tony’s feet and onto his own. Tony watched him carefully, then set about fixing the rock nest. 

It took most of the day, and Steve watched Tony rearrange and reorganize the rocks. Steve was pretty sure Tony was just moving them back and forth and no actual structure of the nest really changed. If it made Tony happy to burn off his anxiety ‘fixing’ the nest Steve would let him have it.

Tony’s engineering struggles attracted both Natasha and Pepper, who stood by Steve watching the chaos unfold. Pepper was worryingly close and Steve debated taking a step away to save his feathers and the egg, however Nat was on the other side of him. He was trapped.

“So, Tony brought up trying for Adelies next year,” Pepper said, just as Tony moved the blue rock back to where it had been half an hour ago.

  
Steve turned to Pepper; she may have been sitting on the egg but he’d seen how fast she’d moved before.  
“I did suggest that,” he replied, cautiously, pulling his feet up so the egg was pressed tight to his brood patch. “But I don’t have to be involved!” he added hastily, unsure if Pepper liked him enough to even consider it, or if she merely tolerated him for Tony’s sake.

  
“You make him happy, I wouldn’t mind at all. I was wrong about you, and I’m very pleased about it. Now, we’ll say no more about it until next season. Back to the show.”

  
Steve felt his face warm up with Pepper’s no nonsense response. He looked back towards Tony to see him belly up in the rocks flailing. He nearly lurched after Tony, though Nat’s flipper held him back and he adjusted the egg in helpless anxiety.  
“It's a new nest building technique,” she informed him, preening the back of his head briskly. It was more thorough than comforting.

  
“Ah, okay?” Steve tried to gauge Nat’s face but found no hints about whether she was pulling his leg or not. He sat back again, checking on the egg and then resumed watching Tony scatter rocks as he tried to right himself.

“Maybe we ought to do something,” Steve offered a few minutes later, when Tony had apparently given up. Natasha approached the outer rock and poked Tony’s still body. Tony slapped her offending beak away.

  
“I think you should take your sweater off and take Steve for a swim, I’ll sit your egg.”  
Steve leaned forward; he would like to swim with Tony, and they had been cooped up for days now. Tony’s response was unheard but Pepper snickered.  
“Make sure to really make him swim, he’ll be easier to manage,” Natasha muttered to Steve.

  
Steve nodded as a disgruntled Tony waddled back into their alcove to get the jumper off. Steve passed over the egg to Nat and excitedly hopped after Tony.  
  
Tony didn’t immediately comment, but occasionally he would stop and just look at Steve who was very happy and still very much hopping, heck he would hop all the way down to the water.  
“Why are you so energetic all of a sudden?”  
“To give you an advantage in swimming.”  
“What! You take that back, I’m much faster than you.”  
Steve just hopped by, soon followed by a hopping Tony.

Steve made sure to do a few extra laps at full speed and show Tony the side of the tank that had a current so they could either swim against it, or zoom through it much faster than before. Tony liked the zooming part, Steve was more partial to swimming against it. Made his body ache just right when he got out of the water.  


They swam for a good while and judging by the way Tony kept skirting near the shallow edge it was time to quit. Steve zoomed out of the water at full speed, landing comfortably in the snow bank under the nesting cliff. He started to hop back to the nest but Tony made a soft wheezy noise, and called ‘Steve’. He turned to see Tony in the shallows, pushing himself along on his belly and beak drooping with tiredness. His bare scar made sliding uncomfortable, so Steve hopped over in a good mood, ignoring Tony’s peeved squinting, to help him to his feet and fix the problem before it could make Tony any more peevish.  
  
It took a bit of pushing and wobbling but Tony got up and waddled back to the newly improved incline. The exhibit cliff had been fixed, no longer as steep or slippery. The route back was a bit longer but it was worthwhile, since you didn’t have to worry about slipping back and reclimbing everything.

Steve let Tony lean on him as they climbed up, Tony tried once more to chatter but he was very winded from vigorous exercise and wasn’t able to really chatter as he climbed so they did it in silence. Back at the nest Natasha was in their rock pile looking quite the queen. Pepper was off in their rock nest probably also looking just as regal.  
  
Steve carefully transferred the egg to his feet and with quiet thanks from Nat, then followed Tony into the alcove. Tony collapsed into the bowl of the nest with a sad peep. Steve carefully picked over the feathers on his back, preening Tony until his breaths became less stressed. Maybe next time he’d insist on less of a work out; Steve clearly had misjudged Tony’s stamina.  
  
Steve nudged Tony in a circle as he preened him, making sure every feather was clean and in the right spot. Tony was dozing under Steve caring beak and they were both so absorbed in the tasks that they hadn’t noticed that Jarvis had opened the door, jumper in hand.  


He got their attention with a little tap on the door frame, and Steve looked up.  
“Thank you, Steve. You do such a good job looking after him. He is quite tuckered out, we really must get him exercising more.”  
The jumper was popped over Tony’s head and Steve watched Jarvis manhandle floppy Tony’s flippers through the sleeves. There was a small hand out of mackerel once he was done and Jarvis left them to nap, Tony comfortably up to his ears in the cozy jumper, his beak pointing upwards.

The night was nice, and Tony slept deeply and peacefully. Tony had managed to prop himself up so Steve could huddle up next to him and sleep without worrying about the egg as much. In the middle of the night Tony stirred and poked Steve awake.  
“I’ll take the egg now,” he said, nibbling gently at Steve’s belly.  


“Yeah.” He lifted his belly and let Tony take it without really waking up. Steve stretched his legs and then cuddled up to Tony, tucking his head under Tony’s to go back to sleep.

The next morning they swapped the egg and Tony sat on Nat’s egg as the girls went off to do mysterious things that they described as ‘politick’. Steve was watching Tony fight his need to fix the girl’s rock nest even though they issued him a number of warnings to not mess with it at all.

  
“It doesn’t look right,” Tony whined, beak open suspiciously near a pale stone.  
“Mmm, Pepper threatened to make you bald,” Steve reminded him, nibbling at his flipper feathers. There was a new one coming in, and Steve was itching on Tony’s behalf.

  
“I’m already bald, Steve, she wouldn’t...” Tony did not sound particularly convinced of his own argument.

  
“Just look at our nest, it's much better, just the way you want it.”  
  
There was a loud huff but Tony did seem to fidget less. Pepper came back without Natasha soon after and took the egg from Tony. She eyed up her nest, making sure the fidgetidy chinstrap hadn’t messed with her lovely construction, then settled in with her brood pouch completely covering the egg, since she was wet from swimming. 

  
“Steve, they’ve put live fish in the swimming area,” she told him, “ Natasha wishes you to come down and swim with her. Tony will have the egg. I will sit them both.”

  
“Pep, you love spending time with me; I’m not an egg to be sat on!” Tony squawked, a bit indignantly as he made his way to Steve.

Steve said nothing, thankful that Jarvis at least helped with some of the Tony-sitting. Once the egg transfer was done, Steve headed out of their alcove with a beak brush and a promise of getting some fish for Tony. Steve was off as soon as he waddled from rock to the snow, sliding to the water on his belly, zooming down and swerving around other ‘guines on the way to the water. He splashed in and found Nat near the back of the tank catching fish with ease.

Steve, never having caught fish in the wild, took some time to figure out how. Natasha was a seamless example of what to do, and at least the other penguins were having a bit of a learning curve as well. It wasn’t long until he and the others got the hang of it and the fish stock diminished to nearly nothing. Steve thanked Nat once more for helping him, and for sending the news to him with Pepper, and hopped back to Tony very excited with a crop full of fish and another held proudly in his beak.  
  
Steve found Tony lounging the alcove with the egg and he hopped over. Tony perked up on seeing the fish in Steve’s beak and he chattered for it in excitement. Steve gave it freely and then in a quick surprise, Tony found Steve emptying his crop into Tony’s mouth. Fed like a baby, and his cheeks hot, but at least it tasted good.  


“Steve!” Tony sputtered around the fish, once Steve was done.

  
“Hmm, just practicing. Did I do well?”  


Tony squinted, swallowing a bit to make space for talking. It had been a bit unexpected and he could feel that there was fish flecks on his face, but he was sure that was his fault, for his spluttering.

  
“Let me know next time, and I won’t flail half so much. It was good.”

  
“That's swell, Tony. It’s nice to fish for my special fella. I’m really excited for the chick, now.”

“Me too Steve, now come over here and get this fish off my face.”

  
“Sure, Tony.” Steve rubbed his beak on Tony’s, scraping the scales off, and they settled in for a post-swim preen.

🐧

Jarvis borrowed Clint once again for the Chick Naming Poll. They were running submissions, and then a vote, so there were gigabytes of names to weed through. Clint had the know-how to set up profanity filters, so Jarvis exchanged two hours of enrichment manufacturing for his services. Working with Coulson wasn’t a hardship, anyway, and the collaboration time was more than compensated for by Clint’s help. 

Once the worst of the filtering was done, Jarvis and Clint had a rather nicer time of reading through the names and deciding what was appropriate to include in the poll. Gender neutral names were a requirement, since genetic sexing would take a while to come back, which ended up cutting the list down by more than half. 

[pattydance]: omg it should have a rock name

[gamerlikool]: Granite? Quartz?  
[Insiderp]: Morgan Freeman  
[Maxidefens]: just call it God if you’re gonig call it that

[pattydance]: I’m SOLD. God is a peng.

[sunnymello]: candy cane

Jarvis smiled to himself, and watched the suggestions for ‘Morgan’, ‘Freeman’ and variations thereof come flooding in as people from the livestream filled out the submission form.

“A few rock names, ‘Morgan’ and a few names out of the gender-neutral babynames book?” Clint said, also looking at the stream of ‘Morgan Freeman’s. 

“I believe six choices should be enough. We’ll post it today, or else we’ll be flooded. Do you have our traffic data?” 

Clint clicked around in the interface, then grunted affirmatively. “Saturday five PM is peak. If we set it off....half four?” 

Jarvis hmm’ed in thought. “If we have technical hangups, half an hour is not very long. Let’s open at midday, there’s a small peak there, and if it falters, we’ll only have lost a few visitors.” 

The livestream chat scrolled by onscreen, bickering over whether gemstone names were ‘girly’. Jarvis, being quite content with calling female penguins by male names and vice versa, didn’t particularly have an opinion. 

On video, Tony and Steve were having afternoon ‘tea’ with their co-parents, and preening furiously. The molt was coming up for Tony, and the poor sir was tickling all over. 

Jarvis made note of these observations, looking back over the dates for previous molts, and decided that Tony was going to be an absolute menace for the upcoming season. Alas.

🐧

Tony had been grouching about being itchy but Steve was still surprised by the dedicated levels of Tony’s massive molt. So many of his feathers dropped at once, that it was hard to see the floor of their alcove for the drifts of waterproof down! Steve preened as much as he could, but even a dedicated husband had to have breaks _ sometimes _ . The new feathers came in quickly, and that meant they _ itched _. The little sharp tips of the pin feathers irritated Tony until the only thing that could comfort him was sitting the egg and preening. He even stopped meeting Jarvis at the gate for food, refusing to give up the egg for long enough to go eat from his beloved red bucket. Even his jumper was too irritating to wear, and Tony picked a hole in the hem without noticing, to everyone’s dismay. 

The discarded feathers were taken away by Jarvis and the jumper was tucked away till the rest of Tony’s belly was done molting. Tony still refused to leave the alcove, pouting and messy in a half-ready coat. He sat the egg and depended on Jarvis and Steve for food.

Thirty three days after Natasha gave them the egg, Steve heard a distant peeping within the alcove when he returned from fishing. Tony was slouched on the wall and the egg still snug under his belly, and yet Steve could see it wobble. Steve crouched low echoing the peeping as he carefully nudged the egg out of Tony’s grip. Sure enough there was a pip on the other side and a tiny beak poking through.  
  
Steve poked Tony in the tummy as he continued calling at the chick. Tony came to with a flail, eyes out of focus, but he started peeping with Steve immediately. Tony also lowered his body and poked at the egg a bit, pulling back to offer more peeps of encouragement. They shared eye contact for a moment before they were back to urging the chick to emerge.

  
Sure enough, a dark bill and wet grey fluff with white patches emerged and laid there between Steve and Tony, tuckered out from hatching but wiggling its feet valiantly.  
“A handsome chick.”

“Adelie chicks are nicer.”  
“They look the same, hungry grey fluffs!”  
Steve snickered and Tony dropped his flippers and indignation, catching on that Steve was pulling his flipper.  
  
“Alright trouble maker.” Tony squinted at Steve as Steve nudged the baby onto his feet and under his body into the warmth to dry off. The baby peeped a bit, probably annoyed at being moved, and Steve ignored the feeble flipper flap. So energetic; the chick was sassing him, just like its dad. He squinted at Tony.  
“He’s got your spunk.”  
“You like my spunk.”  
Tony waddled over and as Steve watched, more little puffs of feathers sloughed off of Tony. At least the floor war pretty much insulated with down and molt by now, it would keep the chick warmer. Being careful not to smother the tiny chick in his brood pouch, Steve flicked away bits of eggshell until the nest was all clean rocks and fluffy down. He could feel tiny feet and a beak, wiggling; the chick was turning around so it's butt was facing out.  
  
He lifted his tummy up for another peek; the feathers were still moist with amniotic fluid, that would change soon, though, and the tufts of feathers would puff up as they dried. The egg shell, Tony took over and he tapped on the back door. “I’m pretty sure Jarvis will want this.”  


“How so?” Steve asked, bemused but only half paying attention.  


“He’s been taking my molts, and he’s shown me the exhibit with the other eggs from other hatches,” Tony replied, returning to the rock nest and puffing up beside Steve.  
Steve nodded as he picked out a few errant fluffs on Tony’s neck.

“Humans are strange.” 

“But have tasty fish.” 

“Hmm.”

🐧

  



End file.
